England on the brink

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Nearly 11 weeks since their departure with the tour party in disarray following the sacking of coach Peter Moores and captain Kevin Pietersen, England are on the brink of creating history in the final one-day international at the Beausejour Stadium.

"I suppose there was potential for us to go off the rails and we haven't done that," said Strauss. "To lose the Test series was bitterly disappointed but I think the guys have stuck together very well."

He added: "It bodes well for the future but at the same time it's important we keep doing the hard work we've done on this tour and it's not just a one-off, but part of an ongoing process and if we do that I'm sure we'll get the results on the pitch as well.

"We've put in a huge amount of work over the last 10 weeks off the field and the guys have responded excellently.

"The amount of fitness work we've done, the amount of training work we've done has been very impressive but you want to see the rewards for that hard work we've put in.

"We will be judged not on how well we've done in our training sessions but how well we've done on the pitch which is why this game is a very important one."

Strauss' great success as captain during this tour has been persuading the players to accept a gruelling fitness regime which had been universally unpopular under Moores by giving them more of a say into the schedule.

It has resulted in England undertaking tough training sessions, including boxing, running and sit-ups both before and during batting in the nets to try and simulate the tiredness felt during a long innings.

"We've tried to explain to the players a little bit more of the need to do things or why we're doing things or giving them more freedom into how they go about it," said Strauss. "All the stuff we do off the pitch is designed to help us perform on the pitch. It's not a case of being told what to do, it's about wanting to get back to playing better cricket and if we feel there are ways of doing that which we're all comfortable with then the work ethic will always be there."